The voting results for this year's Baseball Hall of Fame class are about to be announced, and I just thought I would throw my quick 2 cents in. Many have written at length about the agonizing decisions they faced over whether or not to vote for various PED-linked players this year, but in my mind there are 2 players who absolutely should go in who have never (to my knowledge) had any serious accusations leveled against them - Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. It seems like Bagwell has some vague "guilt by association" cloud hanging around him, but I don't believe anyone has ever directly accused him of wrongdoing.
Without question, their career numbers speak for themselves:
Craig Biggio:
3,060 hits
.281 avg / .363 obp / .796 ops
668 doubles
291 HRs
1,175 RBIs
1,844 Runs
414 SBs
Jeff Bagwell:
2,317 hits
.297 avg. / .408 obp / .948 ops
488 doubles
449 HRs
1,529 RBIs
1,517 Runs
202 SBs
Keep in mind, they both played significant portions of their careers on the hard turf of the cavernous Astrodome. Certainly their HR numbers would have been higher playing in a more hitter friendly park.
Beyond just their stats, I always admired both guys for always playing hard. They were a lot of fun to watch, even though I had to watch them beat up on my team far too often!
And how can anyone NOT love Bagwell's intimidating batting stance?
My gut tells me that Bagwell may have to wait a few years to get in, but here's hoping I'm wrong and they go in together!
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